In the week since President Joe Biden announced that he would no longer be seeking a second term, social media platforms have been flooded with memes about coconut trees and Charli XCX’s “brat” album in support of Vice President Kamala Harris, a sign that younger voters approve of the switch from a Silent Generation member to someone on the cusp between baby boomer and Gen X.
“My daughter said whoever is running TikTok is ‘fire,’” Ken Ulman, the chair of Maryland’s Democratic Party, said of the Harris campaign’s account.
Some young Republican voters also are fired up about having millennial JD Vance, 39, as the vice president pick on Donald Trump’s ticket.
“It’s very exciting for someone who is formally officially a young Republican — we age out at 40 — to be on the ticket … to see someone from their generation who they relate to,” said Jackie Sackstein, the chair of Maryland Young Republicans.
A poll from NPR, PBS News and Marist conducted among 1,309 adults July 22 found 39% of millennials and Gen Z believe Biden made the right decision in choosing to drop out of the presidential race, and that 43% of members of both generations said they are more likely to vote in November. The poll also found that 28% of millennials and Gen Z have a favorable impression of Vance.
Both sides are aiming to capture the youth vote. For Harris, 59, the effort has taken off on social media, attracting viewers of all ages.
Ulman, a member of Gen X, has found himself immersed in the online political universe forged by millennials and Gen Z, where videos of news conferences have a chartreuse tint reminiscent of pop singer-songwriter Charli XCX’s “brat” album cover and Harris’ viral quote about falling out of a coconut tree is remixed with pop music.
The quote comes from a comment Harris, now the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, made at the White House in 2023: “My mother used to — she would give us a hard time sometimes — and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.’”
In a TikTok video, Charli XCX described “brat” as “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party, and like maybe says some dumb things sometimes; who, like, feels herself but then like also maybe has a breakdown, but kind of like parties through it, and is very honest — very blunt — a wee bit volatile; yeah, but does like dumb things. But it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.”
“I, over the last couple of days, have learned like many Americans what ‘brat’ means,” Ulman said. “We’re motivated by young people getting fired up, and it’s pushing all of us.
Ulman called the newfound excitement among young voters “infectious” and “a new moment.” Many of them were disenchanted with Biden, 81, not only because of his age, but also because of a misalignment among his policy and their expectations. Younger voters, who tend to skew liberal, have expressed concerns about his administration’s handling of climate change, student loan debt and the Israel-Hamas war among other issues.
According to the NPR, PBS News and Marist poll, 47% of millennials and Gen Z would vote for Harris over former President Donald Trump, 78, who polled at 42% between the two generations. Over 75% of voters under 35 believe Harris should be the Democratic nominee.
Harris has yet to officially receive the party’s nomination, which will be decided at the Democratic National Convention next month, and she has just under 100 days to plead her case to voters.
Henry Snurr, the chair of Young Democrats of Maryland, said there has been a sense of appreciation toward the president for handing leadership over to a new generation.
“It’s not just that she’s a breath of fresh air — she’s like a whirlwind of fresh air,” Snurr said. “We’re still ridin’ with Biden, it’s just that Kamala is driving right now.”
The state Democratic Party is sending 118 delegates to the national convention in Chicago next month. According to Ulman, 35% of them are 35 or under. Snurr said 2024 was the first instance “in a long time” that Maryland’s Democratic Party reached its youth demographic goal for DNC delegates.
On the other side, younger Republicans in Maryland said they aren’t concerned about Harris’ candidacy and appreciate how easy it has been to rally support for Trump and his running mate, Ohio U.S. Rep. JD Vance, among two very online generations.
“They are from the same administration, they have basically supported the same policies,” Sackstein, the chair of Maryland Young Republicans, said of Biden and Harris. “It’s the same message they have to defend.”
She is, however, excited about the prospect of Vance serving as vice president. Vance has followed Trump in focusing his messaging on the president’s age and long tenure in Washington, D.C.
“When I was in the fourth grade, a career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA — a bad trade deal that sent countless good jobs to Mexico,” Vance said during his speech at the Republican National Convention. “When I was a sophomore in high school, that same career politician named Joe Biden gave China a sweetheart trade deal that destroyed even more good, American, middle-class manufacturing jobs.”
Harris was originally set to debate Vance in the lead-up to November’s general election. He will now face her vice presidential pick, which her campaign has yet to announce.
While Harris is younger than both Trump and Biden, Sackstein noted that she still isn’t from the generation of young voters headed to the polls in November.
Ahead of Biden’s announcement, Snurr said the Young Democrats’ messaging to young voters homed in on his record regarding issues that younger generations care about deeply — like housing affordability and lowering health care costs and student debt — and reminding voters what’s at stake under a second Trump administration.
“We are seeing what the other side is trying to do, which is literally taking rights away that their parents and grandparents had that they no longer have,” Snurr said of the Republican Party.
The passion infused into a younger voter base by Harris’ candidacy could allow the Democratic Party to focus its energy on races down the ticket, including Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks’ campaign for U.S. Senate, which is at risk of being in Republican control this election cycle.
“The energy will absolutely benefit every Democrat running for office in 103 days,” Ulman said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that President Joe Biden, born in 1942, is a member of the Silent Generation and that Vice President Kamala Harris is a baby boomer who identifies as a Gen Xer. An earlier version listed the wrong generations due to an editing error.
